Oldham Athletic Community Trust recently celebrated 15 Years of Premier League Kicks by hosting a regional girls tournament at Kick Sonic!
On Thursday 24th February, OACT hosted a PL Kicks tournament for girls aged 12-14 at Kick Sonic, welcoming teams from Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Wigan Athletic and Rochdale to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of PL Kicks.
The event started with players engaging in a Growth Mindset workshop, which centred on unlocking the potential of the participants. This was followed by each team playing each other once with the top four teams reaching the semi-finals.
Before the semi-finals were played Oldham Athletic club captain Carl Piergianni and Nicky Adams visited to take part in a Q&A session. Carl and Nicky answered questions surrounding the sacrifices they’ve made and hurdles they’ve overcome to become a professional footballers; which reflected on the workshop the participants had done earlier in the day. You can see the Q&A session highlights here.
Unfortunately, Oldham Athletic lost in the semi-final to Liverpool who advanced to the final and overcome Wigan to be crowned champions on the day. You can see highlights from the whole event below:
For the last 15 years, Premier League Kicks has been working in local communities to inspire thousands of young people.
PL Kicks started in 2006 and has a long history of using the power of football and the value of sports participation to help youngsters in some of the most high-need areas.
Click here for PL Kicks at 15 case studies
By engaging them in constructive activities, including a wide variety of sports, coaching, music and educational and personal development sessions, communities up and down the country have been transformed with impressive football and sports participation rates and the authorities reporting significant reductions in anti-social behaviour in the areas in which it is delivered.
The programme started with four pilot projects, at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Fulham and Brentford. Thanks to another three year funding commitment from the Premier League, the programme has grown so that 90 Premier League, EFL and National League clubs will deliver sport and education sessions at over 700 venues in local communities where projects are needed most.
Over 175,000 young people will engage in the programme between 2019-2022.
The scheme has enabled thousands of youngsters to find routes into education, training and employment with volunteering being a key component.
Find out all about PLKicks HERE